The present invention generally relates to a display, and more particularly to a display with eye-tracking for judging relevance, to a user, of information being displayed on the display in a xe2x80x9cticker-likexe2x80x9d fashion, and a method therefor.
With the explosive growth of digital cyberspace, xe2x80x9cticker-likexe2x80x9d displays have recently emerged as one of the dominant user interfaces for Internet-based information systems.
Ticker displays are particularly useful for displaying highlights for a large variety of frequently updated information, such as stock quotes, sports scores, traffic reports, headline news, etc.
Typically, a ticker display uses an area of a computer screen to scroll text and/or image items continuously in a predetermined pattern (e.g., from left to right, from bottom to top, etc.). These are widely used by webcasting or Internet push systems, such as PointCast. Further, ticker displays have also been deployed by many popular websites such as MyYahoo, ESPN Sports Zone, and ABC News for similar purposes.
However, currently there is no way of knowing whether the user is viewing the ticker display, or whether the information being displayed by the ticker display has relevance to the user, and there is no way for advertisers and the like to capitalize on or change the information being displayed.
In view of the foregoing and other problems of the conventional systems and methods, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for viewing information and data which is user-interactive.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system which integrates eye-tracking technology with ticker-like interfaces to significantly enhance the usability of the ticker interface.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a system for generating relevance feedback which is helpful in improving the quality of Internet-based information systems.
A further object is to provide a system which determines whether the user is viewing the information being displayed, and, if so, determining a level of relevance to the user of the information being displayed by the ticker display.
In a first aspect of the present invention, a method for interactively displaying information, includes a display for displaying items having different views, a tracker for tracking a user""s eye movements while observing a first view of information on the display, and a mechanism, based on an output, from the tracker, for determining whether a current view has relevance to the user.
In a second aspect of the present invention, a method for interactively displaying information, includes displaying items having different views, tracking a user""s eye movements while observing a first view of information on the display, and, based on the tracking, determining whether a current view has relevance to the user.
With the unique and unobvious aspects and features of the present invention, the system can determine whether the user is viewing the ticker display, and, if so, whether the information being displayed by the ticker display has relevance to the user. Further, the present invention provides a hassle-free way of providing relevance feedback for the information being displayed and can automatically change the amount and type of information being displayed to a particular user. Thus, the system is adaptive to the user""s interests and preferences, and thereby advertisers and the like can capitalize on or change the information being displayed to the particular user.